My Father's Eulogy

Ronny Gali

May his memory be a blessing to everyone.

My father had an unconquerable free spirit.  The ocean and waves were his sanctuary.  He was at the beach daily and surfed at least a few times a week since I can remember. He was the parent that dropped off and picked me up throughout my school years. Instead of going home after school, we went to the beach, almost every day, for years. I'm not exaggerating.  I have memories of him slapping sunscreen on my face, cracking sunflower seeds with his mouth, being pushed out on the waves on his board. By probably 10 years old, I wasn't scared of the biggest waves in Huntington Beach.  Years we spent diving under waves, boogie boarding, collecting shells, dreaming about finding treasures or messages in a bottle. He was an ambitious entrepreneur but never made money his first priority over family.  He had an innate wisdom, like that of a child and a 100 year old man.  He said things like, "It's better to be somewhere in the middle.  You don't want to be too rich or too poor.  Too this or too that" and "It's good to be simple." He mastered balance in a way that was impressive.  He worked in the mornings, spent the afternoons with his daughters, and managed to get exercise and fun in for himself too. In the late afternoons, you could find him lying on the ground in our courtyard with his eyes closed, resting with our dogs. He had an artist's soul, appreciating the details and aesthetic beauty around him. He was very detail oriented.  At times he would stand still looking forward, just thinking, for several minutes (tears) imagining, creating, inventing. On holidays, specifically Passover, he led our family and often community in the Haggadah prayers. He had a beautiful voice and remembered how he would sing, "Echad mi yodea" and "Vehi Sheamda."  In our religion, he was the head of household, like my grandfather, and I'm sure, generations before him.  My father, with the DNA of millennia, had a holy air about him.  Although during the days he was a seemingly nonreligious man, in the mornings he would wrap tefillin and start the day in prayer. He was priestly. Together with my mom, my parents were a power couple.  They had a powerful loving and protective presence about them.  We had a holy home, and both my father and mother were holy souls.  He worked hard to instill a love of Judaism, Israel and Zionism. As kids, we would watch Israeli singalongs and visited Israel about every 5 years.  He taught me and my sisters how to look for ancient coins in the caves which he collected as a child.  I remember when I found a pretty clear Roman coin and my father burst out into a deep excited laughter and said it was clearer than any coin he had found.  The feeling I had in that moment is unforgettable. On Shabbat, the girls would make Israeli salad and we would eat Salmon, rice or couscous and salad religiously.  We grew up on a Mediterranean diet and had a tradition of hiking or being in nature every Shabbat. My father was an adventurer and an outdoor enthusiast.  I got my love of the outdoors from him. "Don't tell your mom" was not uncommon to my ears after we'd have near death experiences in the wild. Nature provided all the adrenaline he needed. We went river rafting in the trinity river when I was about 5 yrs. old and my neck got wrapped in the reeds of a tree and I was stuck under my inner tube.  I distinctly remember him diving toward me to get me out.  He was a sportsman - surfing, spearfishing, snorkeling, boating, fishing, hiking, swimming, and biking.  My father was also "cool".  With his Israeli accent, he would crack jokes, curse like a sailor, and knew how to connect with kids and teens.  Indeed, he was a father to all my friends as well.  He was a role model, a leader in his own right, and he left an imprint on the soul of all who knew him. He was an optimist and always looked forward and never back.  He knew what life was all about and he knew how to live it. My father valued Judaism, God, health, happiness, ruach, freedom, art, love, and friendship.  We will live on his legacy forever.

Am Israel Chai!

☊Moti Weiss- Al Aba Lo Shoalim Shaeilot☊